Tag: skincare tips

Renee Rouleau’s Video Debut: The Five Worst Skincare Mistakes

For several years, Renee Rouleau has been my go-to skincare expert. Her advice is practical, reasonable, and always knowledgeable. I’ve learned so much about my skin and skincare in general from her. It is very exciting to see her in action (since I haven’t met her!) for me!

Savvy, smart, and always knowledgeable, Renée Rouleau is my go-to for all that is skincare. She’s a celebrity esthetician with her own line (I love her AHA/BHA Cleansing Gel!), and she also regularly updates her blog with skin care tips and tricks.

What’s the #1 reason someone will go to sleep without washing their face? Exhaustion. I certainly understand the discipline and effort it requires to perform your nighttime Skin Care routine, especially when you’re exhausted. But, you really must do it.

Here are five reasons why:

1. Touching your face all day long, without intentionally doing so, is making your face one of the dirtiest parts on your body. It’s important to clean the skin to avoid the spread of acne bacteria that can cause increased blemishes.

2. Cleansing your skin at night will reduce oil and the ability for acne-causing bacteria to thrive inside the pores. This means less break outs!

4. While you sleep, your skin is at rest allowing regeneration to occur. For the best anti-aging results, clean your skin with a gentle sulfate-free cleanser like Luxe Mint Cleansing Gel or AHA/BHA Cleansing Gel and use a high performance serum and moisturizer.

5. Moisturizers evaporate when on the skin all day, so washing your skin and applying moisturizer at night ensures it will stay moist and hydrated.

Skincare Tips from Renée Rouleau: Do skincare products expire?

Savvy, smart, and always knowledgeable, Renée Rouleau is my go-to for all that is skincare. She’s a celebrity esthetician with her own line (I love her AHA/BHA Cleansing Gel!), and she also regularly updates her blog with skin care tips and tricks.

It’s so important to be aware that skin care products don’t last forever. We buy products and don’t end up using some of them as often as we had intended, and they end up collecting dust. But are they still safe to use? Dallas-based celebrity esthetician, Renée Rouleau has answers!

Generally, most skin care products guarantee safety and freshness for one year. Some will last up to two years and some will last less. Products that are sold both in Europe and in the United States will have a symbol of an open jar with a number followed by the letter “M” to indicate how many months the products will last after it’s been opened, but this is not required if the product is only sold in the United States or Canada.

Tips to getting the longest life out of your skin care products:

Write the purchase date with a marker on the bottom of the jar or bottle. Whether the product has the month symbol on it or not, the difficulty will always be that you won’t recall when you purchased the product so writing it on the jar is a fool-proof way to remember.

Keep your products away from light and heat. This definitely helps to preserve the product for longer since active ingredients can be compromised when exposed to heat and light. Store them in a drawer or cabinet.

Have clean hands before dipping your fingers into a jar. Most skin care products should be formulated with a strong preservative system so there shouldn’t any worries about using your fingers to get a cream or mask out of a jar. But it’s still good to make sure you hands are clean. Usually when a cream or mask is applied, it’s after cleansing your face so generally your hands are clean anyway.

Optional: Refrigerate your skin care products. If you aren’t using a product on a regular basis and want it to last, you can always store it in the refrigerator. This generally will help to maintain its freshness for longer.

Keep the caps closed tight. It’s a fact that air will break down active ingredients more rapidly, so make sure the caps are closed tightly.

Tips for when to toss:

If your product changes consistency, color or scent, it’s time to toss. First, check for expiration dates. If that isn’t obvious, there are a few things to look for: Is the product thinner? Are the ingredients separating? Does it smell different than when you purchased it? Has the color changed from white to yellow or light brown? These are signs that the product is changing and should be tossed.

Help those in need:

Clean out and donate (only fresh products.) Many domestic violence shelters gladly accept unused/gently used beauty products for their women who are in need. If you’ve recently purchased a skin care product that isn’t a good fit for your skin or have a product that you’re just not going to ever use, donate it. The Renée Rouleau Cosmetic Donation Program donates to The Family Place in Dallas.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, licensed esthetician, skincare expert, etc. This is information I have gathered from reading many different sunscreen-related articles throughout the past few years. I’ve provided links for reference purposes. As always, please consult your doctor and/or dermatologist for the latest and most accurate, up-to-date information.

Why sunscreen?

Wearing sunscreen will help prevent your skin from burning from harsh UVB rays and reduce the effects of UVA rays on the deeper layers of your skin–it may help reduce the signs of aging later on down the road as well as lower your exposure risk to skin cancer.

What are UVA and UVB?

UVA rays are the kind that have the greatest effect on you… that you don’t necessarily see right away. This includes aging and wrinkles as well as increase the risks of skin cancer. Think of UVA as the AGING (and cancer-causing) rays.

UVB rays are the kind that you’ll notice right off the bat, because UVB rays are generally responsible for sunburns. Think of UVB as the BURNING (sunburn-causing) rays.

This is a very short and sweet summary to get the main points out, but you can check out this article for a more in-depth explanation.

Is higher SPF better?

Not, not necessarily. First, remember that “SPF” is only a rating on effectiveness of UVB rays, not UVA. SPF 15 blocks roughly 93% of all UVB, while SPF 30 blocks 97%, and SPF 50 blocks 98%. (See SkinCancer.org.) If you are out and about, many organizations recommend reapplying sunscreen every two hours (especially if you’re spending the day in the sun). It is also more important to look for a broad spectrum sunscreen than one merely with a high SPF rating.

The way SPF works is if it takes you 10 minutes to start burning normally, wearing SPF 15 would mean it would take 15 times as long to burn–150 minutes.

How much SPF do I need? Do I need to reapply my sunscreen throughout the day?

Most recommendations seem to indicate a a full shotglass’ amount for your entire body applied thirty minutes before sun exposure and reapplied every two hours. If you’re in the water or sweating, it is even more important to reapply regularly. Even water-resistant sunscreens (designed for 40 minutes of protection in the water) and waterproof sunscreens (designed for 80 minutes of protection in the water) need to be reapplied after a romp in the water. (See AAD.org.)

How do I reapply sunscreen over makeup?

According to WebMD, it is much better to choose a moisturizer or lotion/cream based SPF product rather than a foundation or powder with SPF in it–you may not get enough coverage if it’s within a foundation (particularly a powder) or cosmetic product. Bauman (an expert in the aforementioned article), recommends reapplying sunscreen once during the day for day-to-day wear. To reapply sunscreen over an already-done face, consider a sunscreen spray (but made for the face, not the body), patting a layer of sunscreen or SPF-based tinted moisturizer onto the face (don’t rub), and/or pressed powder (with a sponge for better adhesion) with SPF.

In general, the ingredients in sunscreen degrade when in direct UV contact, so if you’re sitting in an office building all day, it may not be necessary to reapply. Always remember to apply sunscreen liberally–don’t hold back–and be thorough about it. If cost is a worry, look for a more affordable sunscreen rather than a $300/jar sunscreen!

What ingredients should I look for?

Any sunscreen or sunblock should list what ingredient(s) it uses to accomplish sun protection. The rule of thumb is to look for a sunscreen with “broad-spectrum” protection. This means that it uses ingredients that cover the majority of the UV spectrum (so both UVA and UVB protection).

Physical blockers like Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide may give some deeper skin tones a white cast (as they are, literally, physically blocking the rays). Some may be allergic or sensitive to chemical sunscreens and may need to opt for physical blockers instead. Physical blockers protect skin by deflecting or blocking harsh UV rays, while chemical blockers/sunscreens usually absorb them. (Most other sunscreen ingredients beyond titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are chemical sunscreens, for reference.) Physical blockers tend to be more stable, while chemical sunscreens may degrade and are often paired with other sunscreen ingredients to increase stability. (See more information at AMF.org.)

I love, love, loveRenée Rouleau. She really is one of my favorite skincare experts, so I always love to read her tips. (Like sometimes I want to travel to Texas just to visit her spa.) Recently, she sent over these tips to share with Temptalia readers, and we could all use more beauty tips in our lives, right? I don’t think there is a such thing as too many beauty tips…

Skincare Tips: Travel & Your Skin

Have you recently flown or are you planning on taking a vacation in the near future? Worried about the airplane giving your skin trouble? Skin Care Expert & Licensed Celebrity Esthetician, Renée Rouleau offers helpful tips to keep skin healthy and balanced before, during and after taking flight.

The cabins of airplanes have extremely low humidity, which will cause skin to get extremely dehydrated (lack of water). They dry air looks for moisture where it can get it and that means robbing it right from your skin! Dry skin will become drier, but did you know that oily skin will get even oilier when flying on a plane? When the skin has no water, it attempts to compensate for the dehydration by producing more oil—which is the last thing that oily skin needs. But for dry skins that have no oil glands, the skin will be depleted of its water content.

Bottom line: Airplanes can wreak havoc on the skin!

Here are a few helpful tips from Renée Rouleau to help maintain gorgeous & glowing skin, before, during and after flying in an airplane.

Temptalia is extraordinarily pleased to be able to bring you an exclusive review of the Clarisonic by renowned skincare esthetician and expert Renée Rouleau! It’s a very informative and thorough review and read with invaluable information for improving your skincare routine and ensuring it is doing the most for your skin. You can visit her blog for more skincare advice and tips!

Is Clarisonic harmful or helpful? Renée Rouleau gives a review….

Let me start by saying that I normally don’t do reviews of other skin care products. I use my blog as a place to talk and share my thoughts on what I know to be true about skin from being an esthetician for 22 years, but I leave product reviews for all of the great beauty bloggers out there.

My reason for doing a review on Clarisonic is because I have observed changes in my client’s skin that use the brush, and some of the changes have not been beneficial to the health of their skin. Since my goal is to offer helpful skin care tips to allow you to become a smarter skin care consumer, I feel that this is important information to share.

Read all about proper exfoliation and how to use your Clarisonic to avoid damaging your skin!